Nicholas Berg: The Dots Do Not Connect

ChronWatch.com ^ | 5-13-04 | Ira Simmons

[SeenTheLight]

First off, I'll get the obligatory stuff out of the way: the videotaped beheading of 26-year-old American Nicholas Berg, now believed to have been done by al-Qaida linked terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is truly horrifying and an outrage. It confirms that we must continue to fight the War On Terror using maximum force in any place necessary to ensure that these refugees from the Middle Ages are totally defeated.

Certainly Nicholas Berg is as innocent a victim of extreme Muslim atrocities as the 3,000 Americans killed on September 11, 2001, or the victims from the March 11, 2004, Madrid train bombings. But there are many questions about Berg's fateful visit to Iraq which do not square with information given by his family or the U.S. Coalition story of what exactly happened and why he was detained.

First, what has been given as Berg's college background and how he came to run a one-man communications firm seems a little strange if not outright preposterous. It was reported that Nick Berg attended four different colleges: the last was the University of Oklahoma where it is claimed he learned to install radio towers. But Berg never received a college diploma. Media reports said his one-man company was called Prometheus Methods Tower Service Inc. Reality check: it is virtually impossible to obtain such technical work as installing radio towers without a Professional Engineering license, let alone not having a college degree!

The first reports of his life story said that Berg supported President Bush in the War on Terror and helped install communications equipment at the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia. But his father, Michael Berg, is a member of the off-the-charts anti-war group International ANSWER (''Act Now, Stop the War, and End Racism.'') While children occasionally do not share the politics of their parents (I didn't), you have to wonder if telling the media that his kid was a Republican was something of a ruse to direct attention from Michael Berg's (and his son's) true politics.

Then there are the two 2004 trips to Iraq. While most contractors travel directly to Baghdad, Nicholas Berg instead landed in Jordan and found his way by land into Iraq. If indeed Berg was a one-man contractor installing radio towers, it would seem difficult to get any work in Iraq without (a) initially consummating commitments while still in the United States, and (b) having a link to a larger construction company such as Bechtel or (dirty word alert) Halliburton! As yet no radio towers that Nicholas Berg may have built while in Iraq on either trip have been identified.

We know that Nick Berg was bouncing around Iraq until he was detained either by Iraqi police or the U.S. Military in Mosul on March 24. I'll give his dad the benefit of the doubt here: Nicholas was definitely being detained by the coalition for any of the following suspicions:

a) He was loaded with electronics equipment, supposedly for his work on radio communications towers. Possessing sophisticated electronic gear in a war zone without producing any paperwork to prove that he is building radio towers probably set off alarm bells.

b) It was likely that Berg was on an FBI ''watch'' list. FBI agents interviewed Berg a few years ago when they were investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks because, unbeknownst to him, Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, had used his e-mail account when both were in Oklahoma. On Thursday Fox News reported that the FBI dismissed the link between Berg and Moussaoui as ''coincidental.''

c) Speaking on condition of anonymity in one media report, a U.S. official said Iraqi authorities detained Berg ''for his own protection'' because his behavior in Mosul seemed unusual for a Westerner. Plus Berg, who was Jewish, had in his possession texts that were considered ''anti-Semitic'' in tone. One of his friends has been quoted as saying that the Iraqi police thought Berg was an Israeli spy. To add insult to injury, Berg was also carrying some literature written in Farsi including a book about Iran.

d) On April 10, after he was released, Berg visited an Iraqi man who was once married to his aunt. Question: did his former uncle have political ties that caused any suspicions for the coalition?

e) Because he belongs to a far-left peace group and was known to authorities, Nicholas Berg's father likely raised a red flag and was a possible reason that the FBI visited the family in suburban Philadelphia at least three times during the 13 days that Berg was detained.

On April 5, Michael Berg filed a lawsuit alleging that his son was being held illegally in Iraq. Either Iraqi police or coalition authorities released Nicholas Berg the following day. From both his e-mails and interviews with friends, we know that Berg was moving around Iraq through April 10. It is unclear what happened next. On Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon claimed that the U.S. consular extended an offer to assist Berg to depart Iraq by plane to Jordan. But according to his dad, Berg refused, believing that flying out of Baghdad airport was too dangerous and instead he wanted to try driving to Kuwait. In another published report, a friend said Berg wanted to leave by riding through Jordan. Driving in Jordan or to Kuwait when offered a plane ticket home makes no sense: since the fall of Saddam, Baghdad Airport, heavily guarded by coalition forces, is probably as safe as any place in Iraq.

Between April 10 and May 8, when his decapitated body was found hanging from an overpass in Baghdad, Nicholas Berg's whereabouts are unknown. In the rambling speech seen on the grizzly video just before he was decapitated, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicated that he could have traded Berg for hostages being held by the coalition. If true, and believing a terrorist is always a stretch, one question arises among many: why was there no announcement through Al Jazeera, similar to other hostages, that Berg was being held?

To be sure, Nicholas Berg's brutal murder is a great tragedy that has much of the nation and the civilized world outraged. Ironically, Berg's death may do what his old man doesn't want: galvanize American resolve to win the War on Terror! Perhaps amidst the haze of statements from government officials and from a father who may have a hidden political agenda, maybe we can eventually get the real story of the curious life and tragic death of Nicholas Berg.

Ira Simmons

http://www.topthecharts.net/

[livius]

Freeper calcowgirl discovered some really interesting information about a Prometheus Project in PA. Berg's business (Prometheus Methods) was not registered, but the Prometheus Project is apparently a left-wing "guerrilla radio" operation that tries to set up radio connections for carrying anarchist/left-wing material, inside this country and outside of it.

Check this out:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1135409/posts?page=31

[Mo1]

No only did he blame Bush for his son's death ... he said al Qaeda is probably as dangerous as Bush and Rumsfeld.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/video/051304_video_berg2.html

[BritExPatInFla]

My firm does cellular tower work, and, at least here in the states, there are lots of hoops to jump through on the engineering end, not to mention permitting. There are Autocad/Inventor plug ins that make the design as simple as plugging in heights and wind loads, but you still need some solid engineering knowledge to get things right.

[Heatseeker]

So the question is merely was he alive when his head was cut off. I am not sure whether he was or not makes the film that less barbaric.

As I recall, in Saudi Arabia people condemned to be beheaded are usually drugged ahead-of-time to make sure they don't struggle violently. It could be these guys killed him by gunshot and that's the reason for the orange jumpsuit: videotape poor Mr Berg with him wearing the jumpsuit, have him take it off, shoot him, then redress him in it for the final act.

But I agree, however they did it, it was a barbaric act, and, flaming lefties though they may be, the Berg family deserves our sympathy right now.

[Former Proud Canadian]

RE 151, maybe when they were on our side fighting the Soviets?

[GadareneDemoniac]

Exactly what I've been thinking! I have been personally involved ( on the ground, thank Heaven ) with building and maintaining radio towers, and a hard-working, knowledgeable 26 year old can make all the money he can spend right here in the US. It does require a crew, unless you're just painting a tower or changing out a light, and even then most people have assistance on the ground to help with ropes, etc.
The father is an obvious liar - he or the brother claimed that they would ride around here in the U.S. and stop and climb towers and telephone poles. Every comm. tower I've ever seen had a big, ol' locked fence around it.
This story is fishy as all get out.
What do you think about the people who are claiming that the murdered guy wasn't actually Berg? Is it possible that our officials didn't get positive i.d. of the body when it was returned?

[mdmathis6]

I suspect the guy Berg may have been acting some what criminally..thinking he was gaining the terrorist's favor when they really despised him and used him for their gruesome ends. The dad is acticting in part grieving but in part like Juanita Smith...he knows more than he lets on and the political "I blame Bush" stuff is a cover up for this. He is acting far more political than a normal grieving dad would.

That is my current take on it until I see more info!

[GadareneDemoniac]

That's another loose end on this tale - you know as well as I do that nobody - NOBODY - is going to touch a spool of wire at a Philadelphia convention center without the blessing of the union. Was his work there grunt work or a plum assignment? If a the latter, how did he get this unless he had lots of pull to counter his lack of seniority?
I hadn't heard about weapons at the union hall around the time of the convention. Do you have a link?

[PLMerite]

If he wouldn't have been just 17 at the time, I would ask if he was in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...

[Landru]

"...some things about Nick Berg's story don't check out. Could it be possible???"

In the day & age of the Internet where disinformation'srapidly become more powerful than the "truth" & nearly impossible to dispell?

Yea.

...anything's possible.

[RottiBiz]

Someone in another thread this after posted that Nick was receiving '11,000 pounds per month.' I assume the information was from a British publication (use of 'pounds' currency).

A Fox news anchor was interviewing a man in Iraq (last name was Duke) who was staying in the same hotel and said he was having beers with Nick the night before he was killed.

What struck me about the interview was Duke saying Nick had made a lot of money and was going to go "sailing in Turkey" on his way home because he had made so much money.

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping

[conservative in nyc]

Here's what I have found out about the lawsuit. I thought about posting this earlier, but didn't want to bait the tin-foil hat folks here. I figured it might shed some light on why his folks thought he was detained. On the night after the news broke, I tried to find the actual petition filed by Mr. Berg for his son's release from U.S. custody. I went to the court's website, which directed me to something called PACER.

It shows that a writ of habeas corpus was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, I believe on April 5 (Friday).

The docket number is 04-CV-1497. I think it was assigned to Judge Mary Mclaughlin, but I didn't save that page from PACER.

Berg's parents were represented by Alfred Gollatz and Paul Nappi from the firm Gollatz, Griffin & Ewing P.C.

It was dismissed as moot on April 8 (Monday), since Nick Berg had been released on Saturday. No repsonse was filed by the U.S. Attorney in the interim. The notice to mark the matter as moot was short, just two pages.

The original petition for writ of habeas corpus, which would show why the Bergs thought Nicholas was in U.S. custody and should be released, is not available on PACER. That's not necessarily unusual --- their website says some courts don't have everything online, just orders and decisions. I am sure it is available at the courthouse. It's clear that the New York Times and at least one of the Philly area papers do have it, since they have quoted from it. I haven't seen it on-line anywhere. If there was anything inflammatory in it (like the Taguba Report), I would expect it to be posted everywhere.

[Travis McGee]

Sure, that's all very plausible.

Just a big fat coincidence that he shared an email password with 9-11 "20th hijacker" Mousawi on a bus ride in Oklahoma.

That happens to me at least once a month.

[Travis McGee]

242: Prometheus certainly is shaking out as a socialist/Marxist oriented concern, trying to put up "people's radio stations" as an "alternate voice for the down-trodden."

[Travis McGee]

Along with them, add Errol Flynn's son Sean, who rode a motorbike into Cambodia about 1975 to "find out what's really going on," and possibly become a journalist.

Disappeared without a trace. Darwin winner.

[Travis McGee]

The pro-America altruist theory is debunked by examining Prometheus, which is looking more and more like a Marxist/socialist outfit, trying to establish "people's radio stations" etc. See 242.

Mike Berg is on the paperwork for Prometheus, lending this leftist explanation more credibility.

[Travis McGee]

Look at the growing blood lake on the floor. There was PLENTY of bleeding, probably most of it during the prolonged hacking and slicing, when the still-attached head would prevent it from visibly spurting.

This was NOT like a Guillotine, where the head is gone in one second, and a full body of blood, with full blood pressure, shoots out full force.

[Travis McGee]

Thanks. Prometheus' past is the key to understanding Nick Berg's true political leanings. "Pro-Bush" is just spin, cover. The facts are what Promethus DID.

[Travis McGee]

You can trust the body ID, because the State Dept had to turn it over to the hostile Berg family. So they would be DAMN sure of who it was, to avoid charges of wrong body, prior prison abuse etc. DAMN sure.

And you can bet for 100% sure, that if it was the wrong body, or showed month-old torture marks (US or Iraqi custody time period) the Berg family would be screaming to high heaven.

Occam's Razor. It's Nick Berg.